The Unknown Child
by Breware
Summary: Following episode 29, "Subway" of 'Welcome to Nightvale' - one of the messenger children follows Cecil home. ((Note: This is an ancient and short oneshot crapfic I found in the back of my folders, please excuse any and all moments of OOC.))


**Author's Note: **_I uuas going through my old crap in the back of my folders of ancient, forgotten crapfics and I found this. I don't even knouu. UUARNING: really OOC._

* * *

Carlos stood in the small kitchen of the new apartment he currently resided in, leaning his hip against the mahogany colored counter and sipped a bit of his bitter coffee. He normally didn't have his coffee taste so bitter, but he found the more bitter it was, the more energy he got from it. After spending so much time in Nightvale - last he checked he'd been there for a year, but by now, he'd absolutely lost track of time - he found it was harder and harder to keep his energy up. Carlos supposed this was most likely due to the fact that the odd city of Nightvale continued to toss his logical brain through intense loops with the constant impossibilities (such as, a floating cat that made the absolutely _weirdest_ type of noise Carlos had ever heard, whom was introduced to him by Carlos' boyfriend, Cecil).

Currently, Carlos was waiting for Cecil to come home. After what seemed like so much time together, and after they had a rather extraordinary amount of deaths in Nightvale from some obscure holiday Carlos had never heard of, Carlos decided he didn't really want to waste any time with Cecil, and suggested they move in together. Cecil absolutely agreed, and the two found a pleasant apartment together. Normally Carlos would've waited a long while, but he felt a different sort of attraction to Carlos - something a lot stronger, whether it was true love or some oddity of Nightvale, or even the thought that constant doom hung over the odd little city, Carlos wasn't sure - all he knew was, he felt it, and he was coming to really love Cecil.

Speaking of the handsome purple-eyed and _impossibly_ blonde haired man, he'd just walked in through the door with a light, nonchalant smile.

"Hey." Carlos called, giving Cecil a easy grin as he sipped at his coffee.

"Ooh what's _this,_ a perfect haired man standing in my kitchen sipping _coffee_ is what I come home to?" Cecil practically purred, using his formal radio show voice.

Carlos rolled his eyes (he could never get one hundred percent used to Cecil thinking his hair was so perfect - normally a simple compliment like this would be fine, but he still felt a touch weirded out by it considering Cecil seemed to take any chance he could to brag about Carlos' "perfect" hair on air of his show. Oh well.)

Carlos gave Cecil a light kiss on the cheek, and was _certain_ he heard Cecil bite back a light squeal; and then, a moment later, he jumped slightly as he heard a loud _thump_ against the door of their apartment.

"What was that?" Carlos wondered aloud, staring at the door. Various ideas of all sorts of horrors that could be there ran through his mind, but he shook them off lightly.

"The _kid_ again." Groaned Cecil, shaking his head.

"A kid?" Carlos stared at Cecil with his brows furrowed.

"The City Council normally uses children to transport messages, merely by tattooing them on - normally on their lips;" Cecil shrugged like this was absolutely obvious before continuing. "They tend to wander off, or one of the interns take them, but _this_ one keeps following me around and bumping into things as she goes." Cecil let out a slight groan before shaking his head as he leaned lightly on Carlos.

"_The City Council sends you __children__?_" Carlos gawked - sure Nightvale was weird, but the Council sending children with _tattoos on them as messages_? It'd reached a new odd for Carlos, and he quickly trotted over to the door.

"Oh just ignore her! She'll go away eventually!" Cecil exclaimed, exasperated.

Carlos shook his head and quickly opened the door, and sure enough, there was a child, couldn't be more than eight or seven years old. Just a little girl with long black hair and fair freckled skin, who merely stood there staring blankly up at Carlos with the most intriguing green eyes he'd ever seen.

"And this child was _tattooed _and sent to you? Does she have a mother or something who came with her? Where'd she come from?" Carlos bombarded Cecil with questions as he quickly ushered the little girl in. She simply walked in meekly, her blank expression continuing.

"Yes, no, I don't know - _don't let her in! Who knows what. . . . diseases she has?!" _Cecil kept up with the questions then quickly cried out at Carlos, giving him an absolutely exasperated expression.

"Cecil, she's just a _child_." Scolded Carlos as he lightly set the little girl on their couch. He then promptly sat down beside her and stared at her, as she simply stared at the wall.

"Hi there." Carlos spoke softly and kindly, doing his best to catch the eye of the little girl. "Where's your mom? Your dad?" He asked, tilting his head and furrowing his brows.

The little girl did not reply, just continued staring at the wall. She opened her mouth just slightly as if to say something, then seemed to think better of it and closed her mouth.

Cecil stood behind the couch letting out small, whining "_Ca-ar-lo-os!_"'s, but Carlos merely waved him off (which, Cecil replied to with a sort of exasperated and hurt odd squeak.)

"Where do you live?" Carlos asked, and again he recieved no answer.

"Do you have a name?" He added in a touch of desperation - he rather liked children, and wanted to help this one - but he really couldn't if she didn't say anything.

"Melia." She spoke softly and quietly - nearly a whisper, not even sparing Carlos a glance.

"Amelia?" Carlos asked, setting a gentle arm over the girl's shoulders - she felt quite cold.

"Nuh- _Melia._" She spoke slowly and softly, seeming like she wasn't quite sure of her words, nevertheless she got them out.

"Melia." Carlos stated with a nod.

"_Carlos,_ we should just send her to someone el-se!" Whined Cecil, and he gave a slight pout.

"Cecil, we can find somewhere else for her tomorrow, but it's getting late and she's cold. Can't she just stay one night, please?" Carlos widened his brown eyes at Cecil, and _just_ managed to conjure up the puppy-dog eyes he used when he was a children. They seemed to work against Cecil, as he practically _saw_ him melt under the gaze of the puppy eyes.

"_Oookay._" Groaned Cecil lightly, but gave Carlos a smile.

"Thank you." Carlos replied lightly, stretching up and gave Cecil a lightly kiss, which Cecil easily returned.

The two then spent the rest of the night coaxing the girl named Melia to eat a little bit of mac and cheese (which tasted basically like normal mac and cheese, but appeared nothing like the mac and cheese Carlos was used to), and then settled her on the couch with plenty of blankets and pillows. The two men then snuggled up together on the adjoining loveseat to their couch, and slept right beside Melia, who simply stared blankly at the ceiling until 12 AM, when she promptly stood up and slept that way, eyes open, joints locked in a standing position, and snoring just lightly.

It really wasn't a bad night.


End file.
